The Girl Who Fought | h.p |

Realizations

Author's Note:

This is one of my shorter chapters and definitely not my best...

I apologize ahead of time. 

While Hermione, Ron, and Harry were at Hogwarts working on Buckbeak's case, Nova was locked in her room at Morgenstern Manor. 

The Morgensterns did not believe in individuality, especially for females. They believed before being wedded, a female must be prim and proper without a specific personality, as long as they were in Slytherin. Then, once the woman was wedded, they would take on whatever personality their husbands so wished. 

Nova thought it was complete and utter bullshit. 

She did not think any side of a marital relationship needed change who they were. 

"If they only like me for my looks or blood status...they can fuck off," Nova would say. "If they don't like me for my background, or who my father is, to hell with them. If I'm going to be in a relationship, they are going to love me for who I am. Demons and angels. Darkness and light. If they don't...they just lost the best thing in their life."

Naturally, her bedroom was supposed to reflect the Morgensterns' ideals. Meaning, her room was going to lack color, pictures, and posters. Essentially anything that would tell you it's Nova's room. 

By the age of seven, Nova found a way around the rule. Basically, she designed it to her heart's desires. She ordered the house elf that secretly favored her to get everything she needed or wanted for her room. After arranging the room as Nova wished, Binky (the house elf) to put a sticking charm on everything, a sticking charm only Binky could undo. Nova ordered the house elf to lie about what she had done. When Mr.Morgenstern asked what Nova did, she lied. 

"I was dreaming about the room, sir," Nova explained innocently with a little lisp. Her hair had been tied into pigtails at the time. "Then I wished for it to be true. Then my room became what I wished it to be. Please don't be mad, sir."

Mr.Morgenstern was not sympathetic. When he could not remove anything, he grew angry. This resulted in Nova's first beating. 

Before she turned ten, Nova asked Binky to change it into something more mature. Nova felt as if she had grown out of the fairy tale themed room with dragons, knights, horses, pegasi, princesses, and swords. 

Now, Nova's walls were white with the exception of the forest mural painted on the wall. She had a large bed with a  dark grey comforter and a white knitted blanket given to her by Molly Weasley. A large fluffy light grey rug could be found at the foot of her bed. A hanging sitting hammock was hanging near the window where Nova would read for hours on end.  Lights were strung around her room, giving it a homey feel. A beautiful painting of a grey wolf could be seen next to a Gryffindor poster. A bookshelf holding anything from fairy tales to school textbooks could be found on the wall adjacent to her bed. 

Pictures of her family could be found on the walls of the room. Pictures of her and Harry playing Quidditch. Pictures of her laughing with the twins. Pictures of her and Ron binge-watching a movie while eating popcorn and other food, gaining several pounds. Pictures of her and Hermione studying or just hanging out. Pictures of her and Ginny with flowers in their hair. 

One of her favorite pictures was of the Golden Quartet. Ron and Hermione stood next to each other, shoulders touching. She was on Harry's back ruffling his hair. Both friends were both dressed in Gryffindor Quidditch robes. 

A noise from her cat, Shadow, drew Nova's attention away from a picture of her and Harry. Her black cat sat amongst her six thousand pillows and four stuffed animals. 

Each stuffed animal held sentimental value (she wouldn't admit it to anyone, but the same stuff animals went with her to Hogwarts). 

A black dog. A wolf. A stag. A lion.

The stag, dog, and wolf were with Nova for as long as she could remember. They were with her at the orphanage, and she brought them with her to the Manor. 

She remembers there being a rat stuffed animal, but she lost it. She didn't really care about the rat though. 

Incidentally, the dog, wolf, and stag had similar names to the Marauders. 

Padfoo. Mooey. Pons. 

Padfoot. Moony. Prongs. 

 The lion, which Nova names Lionclaw, was a gift from Ron in their first year. 

It was a birthday gift. 

She admired it so much because she knew Ron didn't have a lot of money. But he went out of his way to make sure she had something she would enjoy. 

On that same day, Ron admitted to having a crush on her at first before realizing he loved her as a sister and nothing more. 

This also happened to be the day Nova knew the Golden Quartet were just friends. They were family. It was the day Nova knew she had a family. 

"What's poppin, Shadow?" Nova asked as she sat on her bed, stroking the cat. 

Shadow moved from her spot to the hoodie that was folded on Nova's bed. 

Harry's hoodie. 

"Hey! Get off that!" Nova pleaded, removing the cat from the clothing. She isn't sure why she has it sitting there. She was tempted to wear it, but she didn't. 

Shadow meowed again. 

"Oi! Don't give me that!" Nova objected. "You don't miss him!"

The cat meowed once more. 

"You don't even like him! Every time he came within scratching distance, you scratched his sorry arse!" 

Shadow, as if testing how far Nova's patients stretched, laid on the jumper again. 

"I said, get off!" Nova said, removing the cat from it. 

Shadow sat in front of Nova. Her green eyes looking at Nova's honey eyes. 

Nova subconsciously pointed out the differences between her cat's eyes and Harold's. 

Shadow's wide eyes had slit pupils, and they were a yellow-green. 

Harry's eyes were different. He had almond-shaped forest green eyes. 

"I don't know why you're looking at me like that. I don't miss him," Nova said blandly. "No, I definitely do not miss ruffling his hair. I definitely don't miss making him flustered. I don't miss his beautiful eyes. I don't miss the dorkiness that surrounded him. I don't miss his sassy remarks. I don't miss his stupid stupid laugh. I don't miss him."

Shadow gave a look that clearly asked who Nova was trying to convince. 

"Well, fuck..." Nova said. 

Nova knew she didn't want to lose Harry's friendship. She knew that she didn't want to ruin a beautiful friendship over something Harry said out of anger. If had said what he said in the right mind, he would've lost his best friend. 

Besides, she knew if she and Harry weren't friends anymore, it would ruin the whole group dynamic, and not in a good way. 

Perhaps it was Nova's Hufflepuff side shining through or maybe Lilly was rubbing off on her, but she had forgiven Harry. 

She wouldn't forget what he said, that pain will always be there. But she forgave him. 

However, Nova wasn't going to let him know that. She wanted him to own up to what he did, and apologize. 

Author's Note:

Get your dancing shoes. There's a ball next chapter.